Nintendo DS2 set for launch in next 15 months says analyst

Portable gaming is traditionally dominated by two main players — Nintendo and Sony. Over the last few years, a very tough competitor has entered into the mobile gaming market with arguably the best mobile gaming platform around — the iPhone. With the tougher competition, it is no surprise that the traditional companies are looking to update hardware.

Sony recently introduced the PSP Go and Nintendo is set to launch a larger screen DS this year. However, Nintendo has a much more substantial update in mind according to analyst Jesse Divnich from EEDAR. According to Divnich Nintendo will unveil a new DS2 platform in the next 15 months.

We have already heard grumblings that the next DS platform would use the NVIDIA Tegra platform. According to the analyst, the new DS2 will hit the market in the next 15 months and we should hear an announcement of the coming platform in the next eight months. The new DS2 is also believed to be backwards compatible with existing games.

Divnich wrote, "We believe that due to the aging technology, the possibility of new competitors in 2011, a decline in publisher support and piracy, Nintendo will launch a successor to the DS within the next 15 months, and likely announce such in the next eight months."